(opinions on just about anything)

Barry Bonds

I was flipping between ESPN and the Discovery channel this evening. Mostly because a)I was bored and b)I was really quite bored. My interest in ESPN was to see if I could catch their re-cap of the Phillies game. While I watched the last few innings, and basically know everything that happened, I always like to check up on the most influential sports channel out there and see what they have to say about what happened. See what kind of opinions they are feeding to the rest of the world.

Ever since Barry Bonds came within one home run of tying the record ESPN has insisted on showing us every Bonds at-bat live. Which is actually a really cool thing. I missed the tying home run last week and wasn’t really making any plans to make sure I caught the record-breaker. But I had just switched from Discovery to ESPN when they cut to Bonds’ third at-bat of the night. And boy-howdy did he hit the son of a gun. So I figured I’d be that guy and give my opinions on what this home run means in this day and age.

What this home run will highlight more than anything is how America truly views Bonds and steroids. Regardless of “innocent until proven guilty” the reality is that most Americans feel that Bonds knowingly took steroids. I have several views that are probably not original, but perhaps may help clarify the issue for someone.

1) Even if everyone in baseball was totally clean of steroids, it is still two totally different eras of the game. Rules are different, ballparks are different, dimensions are different, pitchers are more intelligent, hitters are more intelligent, the pitching mound is different, the goal are different. It is really. really. different. I have long been a fan of some really intelligent person figuring out what the main eras of baseball are, so that statistical records can be kept by era and not perpetually. It just makes sense that way. Because we are really not playing the same game that they played 100, 75, or 50 years ago. Or even 20 years ago.

2) Bonds’ record isn’t going to last as long as Hank Aaron’s record. Of course, I can’t say that with full certainty, but Alex Rodriguez is the youngest player to reach 500 home runs. Barring a slew of Ken Griffy Jr.-esque injuries he is a very likely candidate to over take whatever Bonds final number is. And any one of the young home run hitters have a shot at being a career home run hitter and could stick around 20 years hitting bombs.

3) Baseball is too focused on indivudual statistic achievement. Statistics have done a lot of good for the business of baseball. But baseball isn’t a business, it is a backyard dream. Statistics take away from that spirit that made the sport so endearing during the years it was America’s favorite sport. Now instead of the game being about one team triumphing over another team, it is about so-and-so player reaching such and such milestone. While that has a certain appeal it really takes away from the game-to-game accomplishment and general goal of winning as many games as possible to try and be the ultimate victor in the World Series.

4) Cheating has always been a part of sports, especially baseball. Not only has it been a part of baseball, but it has become romanticized. The idea of a pitcher rubbing his spit into a baseball captures our imagination. That was cheating, but not only did they get away with it, but they have also been enshrined into the hall of fame as being great. No one really considered putting any asterisks beside the name of any pitcher caught putting spit on a baseball. Or if they did no one remembers it now. Granted, there is something a lot less romantic about picturing someone with a syringe in his butt… but it really is basically the same.

5) The benefits of steroids are all conjecture without any real basis in hard evidence. It follows the idea that if someone has more muscle, they will hit more home runs. Which sounds good. Yet, there are skinny people who hit home runs. Look at the afore mentioned Ken Griffy Jr.. Or even Jimmy Rollins. Perhaps if they looked like Bonds they would hit more home runs. It is hard to say. Yet we have no way to test that. You can look at Bonds numbers during a time people think he didn’t take steroids, and his numbers when they say he did, and there would be a huge difference there. But how much of that is really attributed to more muscles? How much of it would instead be due to just more experience, and getting smarter and more selective at the plate? How much would be due to studying hours of footage to learn your opponent? Remembering how he got you out last time? There is a lot more to hitting home runs than just muscle. Heck, simply hitting the ball, let alone so you can reach base, is no easy task. Steroids sure won’t help you make contact or hit the ball fair. I have often contended that perhaps one of the biggest advantages steroids give you is mental. Kind of like the kid who thought he had magic shoes, so he won the race… only to find out the shoes were normal and it was simply the mental edge that gave him the confidence to win.

Ok. Lets stop there. I may not be right about all of those, but they are the thoughts that have allowed me to appreciate what Bonds did this evening. Congratulations Bonds.

About Me

I am into music, particularly that of a quirky/avant-garde nature. Examples: Sonic Youth, The Residents, The Fiery Furnaces, The Danielson Famile, and so forth. I also like normal indie stuff: Sufjan Stevens, Wilco, Hella, The Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, blah blah blah. And more mainstream things: Eagles of Death Metal, Queens of the Stone Age, Bjork, Kelly Clarkson, The White Stripes, etc. There are very few genres I don’t appriciate to some extent, although I have a tough time enjoying emo, ska, and r&b.

Movies are pretty cool, and although I don’t pretend to be an expert on them, I will talk about them occasionally. I tend to gravitate toward the pretentious serious films like anything from the Tarantino catalog: specifically Jackie Brown, although Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill are both excellent. I also quite enjoy comedies like Office Space, The Princess Bride, and Saved!. Not to mention anything Monty Python related. In fact, British humor is definitely more my speed.

I would say I love books more than movies on the whole. My favorite authors include Madeleine L’Engle, Tad Williams, J.K. Rowling, Ray Bradbury, and oodles more I am forgetting at the moment. My genre of choice right now seems to be children’s or adolecent fantasy because it does a much better job of capturing the spirit of fantasy than a lot of adult fantasy which insists on throwing in obnoxious, gratuitous sex and stuff.

The one thing most people don’t realize about me when they meet me is my fanatical obsession with Phillies baseball. I am a huge, huge fan and I watch every game that I can on TV. Also a big fan of football (go Eagles)… but nothing really rivals my commitment to the Phillies. The one sport I truly, honestly hate with a passion is basketball. Really, what is the point?

I am a beer snob. I love microbrews. Thankfully Central PA has quite a few very good ones… and is only an hour and a half drive to Philadelphia where there is a whole slew of microbreweries. And hey, we have Stoudts! Every month some church friends and I go to a brewpub and check out the local goods. Expect opinions and reviews on beers right after such trips.

Television. I am a much bigger fan of the products created for TV than the big screen. I mean, Arrested Development? Futurama? Classics. Then there is the old Police Squad show that lasted exactly six episodes before getting canceled… the creators of that went on to do movies like Naked Gun and Airplane!. And can’t forget Monty Python’s Flying Circus… that was one of my best ebay finds.

I have long been a creator of content on the internet. I started off on h2g2.com, a website created by the awesome and clever Douglas Adams, who wrote the entirely too funny Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. I was young and naive. It’s a good site but I only go back really once a year and try to remember my bloody log-in info. Then I moved on to the afore mentioned xanga and blogcritics, of which blogcritics is the most prestigious. Check it out, it’s awesome. Blogcritics.org, a “sinister cabal of superior writers.”

The last thing I shall mention in my virgin post here is that I go to Millersville University where I am in the process of making sure everyone realizes that I am totally awesome.